In association with a remarkable development in the field of computer software, it has become possible to prepare on a computer a spread sheet in which a plurality of cells are arrayed in row and column directions and to obtain a desired result of spreadsheet computing by giving data such as a computing expression or a numerical value to each cell constituting the spread sheet.
Also in recent years, it has become possible to realize a text voice synthesizing technology for reading out a text with voices on software, and by combining the software for synthesizing voices for a text with the software for spreadsheet computing described above, it is possible to read out a spread sheet on a computer for such applications as checking or correcting input data.
In recent years, the technology for reading out a spread sheet has been improved and especially a method of reading out a spread sheet has been proposed. FIG. 23 shows a spread sheet displayed on a display screen. This spread sheet has cells therein arrayed in row and column directions, and column numbers of A, B, C, D, E as an example are given to the row direction while row numbers of 1, 2, 3, . . . , 7 are given to the column direction. Inputted in a second row, a third row, a fourth row, a fifth row, and a sixth row is, each along the row direction, data such as 100 (B column), 30 (C column), 1000 (D column), 111 (B column), 500 (C column), 1100 (D column), 123 (B column), 320 (C column), 125 (B column), 210 (C column), 120 (C column), and 2000 (D column).
For example, in a case where the whole area with data inputted therein in the spread sheet is decided as an object to be read out, the region from B column to D column in the row direction and the region from the second row to the sixth row in the column direction is determined as the range to be read out, so that the range to be read out is specified with a frame surrounding all the cells indicated by the shaded area in FIG. 23.
However, in the technology for reading out a spread sheet according to the example based on the conventional technology, when the number of rows and columns in which data is inputted increases, even rows and columns which lie off the screen are also targeted as an object to be read out, so that a range to be read out has to be specified while the screen is being scrolled keeping the frame as it is, whereby the operations become complicated and additional time is required for executing the complicated operations.